Hi, I'm a somewhat experienced website developer and I've been thinking recently about this board.
So many people have come and gone. So many brilliant stories and fragments of imagination have entered the first page of this board and fallen off the last, shared for moments with a not so stereotypical community, and never to be revisited. Maybe that would feel slightly different were this board unlimited in length, but who knows.
I feel some pangs of sadness for the loss of work and the artists and readers who have come and gone over the many years. I'd like to create a safe place to store and talk about these stories that aren't quite mainstream. I honestly think the deletion of these stories is a loss for humanity.
ASSTR exists, but it can be temper-mental at best, and part of me knows that it won't remain online forever, and provides little in way of discussion.
My main hang ups are hosting and funding. I feel some sort of drive to do something to preserve what I consider a strange yet beautiful art in it's own right, yet the money required to host such a site would need a source, and I would never want a great deal of my real reputation to be ruined from involvement with this kind of community, as sad as that is to admit.
Furthermore, certain countries and companies have different (and evolving) attitudes to hosting such content. It is all a strange thought, but something I feel would be a good thing to do.
If anyone has any advice or opinions (positive or negative) please share them. Thanks.